1. Field
This specification relates to a clothes treating apparatus capable of minimizing lowering of a drying function by preventing scattering of condensate water.
2. Background
Generally, a clothes treating apparatus serves to wash clothes or to dry clothes having undergone a washing process, or serves to perform both a washing function and a drying function. Recently, a clothes treating apparatus may be provided with a steam generator and having a refresh function (i.e., a wrinkle removing function, an odor removing function, an anti-static function, etc.) or a sterilization function.
For instance, a clothes treating apparatus may include a drum type drier for drying clothes having undergone a washing process, a cabinet type drier for drying clothes in a hung state of the clothes, a refresher for refreshing clothes by supplying hot blast to the clothes, etc. Among such clothes treating apparatuses, the refresher, the drier, etc. are provided with a heat source supply unit, and supply hot blast to clothes by heating air. The heat source supply unit includes a gas type heater for heating air by combusting gas, an electric type heater for heating air by electric resistance, a heat pump system for heating air using a heat pump cycle which circulates a refrigerant to a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator, etc. Recently, such a heat pump system having excellent energy efficiency is being actively developed.
In a clothes drier having a heat pump system, air of high temperature and high humidity, discharged from a clothes accommodation unit such as a drum, passes through an evaporator and a condenser. Then, the clothes drier absorbs heat from the air of high temperature and high humidity, and supplies the heat to air to be introduced into the clothes accommodation unit, thereby enhancing energy efficiency.
A clothes drier or a drier having a washing function and a drying function, to which a heat pump cycle has been applied, may require a large air volume for enhanced performance of the heat pump cycle. For instance, as an rpm of a blower is increased, air discharged from a drum has an increased circulation speed, and a large air volume is provided to the heat pump cycle. An evaporator absorbs a large amount of heat from the air discharged from the drum with a large volume, and a condenser emits a large amount of heat to the air of a large volume to thus provide hot blast of a high air volume to the drum. This may enhance a drying function and shorten a drying time.
However, the conventional art may have the following problems. Firstly, in a case where the evaporator and the condenser which constitute the heat pump cycle are spaced from each other with a predetermined gap in a heat exchanger cover, and air discharged from the drum passes through the evaporator with a large air volume, condensate water generated from the evaporator may scatter. More specifically, the condensate water generated from the evaporator may scatter to a front end of the condenser from a rear end of the evaporator, due to a shear stress by an air flow. This may lower a temperature of the condenser, resulting in lowering of a drying function.